Was originally gonna re-review both Sailor Moon S: The Movie and Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie since I planned on watching both in their new theatrical releases, but since I wasn't able to attend the latter today due to unbearably hot weather, I'll just review the former.

Okay so, Sailor Moon S: The Movie. When I originally saw this a few years ago, I loved it and placed it pretty much on-par with Sailor Moon R: The Movie. And since seeing R again last year saw me realizing how well that movie ages, I was hoping for the same with S.

Sad to say, however, that S is not quite as good as I remember it. I don't think it's necessarily bad, but I'm able to see many, many more of its flaws now than I used to. While I enjoy the film for giving Luna some good character focus (she needs more imo), her treatment by the script is... weird. The primary focus of the film is on Luna falling in love with an astronomer and coming to terms with her unrequited love for him. Actually a solid base, but the film takes Luna -- traditionally a rather take-charge and sassy character -- and more or less reduces her to a swooning teenager taking turns going ga-ga over this guy she barely knows and being depressed she can't be with him. This wouldn't be *that* bad (in fact, a few scenes here and there do work well in conveying her conflict and how it affects her emotionally), but the film completely oversells her affections with glittery bubble-lens framing and over-the-top imagine spots of her leaping through meadows in pure romantic bliss. This is all on top of the fact that the film seems to forget about half the time that Luna is a cat, which makes things come off less as cute and precious (as they should) and more as hilarious and kinda weirdly off-putting.

The scene of Luna having her wish to become human granted and having a final moment with the astronomer before moving on from him are very well executed, however. Helps I've always loved the design of Luna's human form.

The villain is also a massive step down from the R movie. While Fiore was a fairly complex character with a strong motivation and a deep emotional bond with the central leads, Princess Snow Kaguya is more or less a generic doomsday baddie, who uses the astronomer's life energy to help fuel a plan to turn Earth into an icy wasteland. There's little to her, and the battle against her is short and ends on a very unsatisfactory note. And the rest of the action, while still being good, doesn't reach the strengths of the R movie's more creative and climactic battles.

At the very least, this film has the benefit of being a lot funnier in places than the R movie. While the R movie generally focused on a serious character-driven action story, S takes more time for some levity and we get some good moments of banter between the Guardians (such as a cutaway where Usagi and Rei immaturely argue with each other over whether Luna left due to being treated badly).

Quite frankly, this movie doesn't live up to either its predecessor or the memories I have of first watching it. I don't dislike it (despite all my complaints), but it was still a disappointment.

Yet another anime happening this week. Will be seeing My Hero Academia: Two Heroes on Saturday, so I'll let you all know my thoughts on it then.

Anime seems to be just about the only kind of movie I go out of my way to see in theaters now. Huh.

EDIT: My Hero Academia: Two Heroes.

Admittedly, while this movie doesn't add too much to the existing world and lore of the franchise, grading a movie like Two Heroes on that metric does it no favors. Ultimately, the point is to put the characters in a new setting, introduce new characters that can work within the story they're made for, and in the case of a Shonen action film, insert the characters into unique battle scenarios and finish things off with an explosive endgame finale.

On all criteria I just listed, Two Heroes excels. The setting of I-Island is unlike anything we've seen in the series thus far, ultimately slotting everyone into an espionage-esque mission to get to the top of a tower for a defined end-goal, not unlike Bruce Lee's Game of Death. The battle scenarios come in unique team-ups between our heroes and the areas they find themselves in, which results in very entertaining and unique uses of their individual quirks to overcome different obstacles. The primary new characters, David and Melissa Shield, as well as our villain for the film, work great in their designated roles within the plot of the film, and lead to some very entertaining and often gripping developments based around their different wants and ideals.

About my only issue is that the first few minutes spend a bit too much time getting audience members who might not be fully aware of My Hero Academia up to speed, but once all the main cast members are introduced and accounted for, thing pick up fairly quickly, and the majority of the film is a hugely satisfying ride to the end credits.

I'm glad I went to see Two Heroes. Even if I was kind of tired due to lack of proper sleep.